Australia – Australian Science

The Detrimental Effect of Brain-Drain on the Scientific Community

Alex Petrovic — Sat, 14 Dec 2013 00:17:34 +0000

A highly educated and highly skilled workforce is a valuable resource for any country. Having top-level professionals in several key fields – be they engineers, medical doctors, physicists or programmers – is as important to a country’s development as its natural resources. Sadly, a lot of countries can’t offer a tangible incentive for either professors working in higher education institutions or skilled professionals that have received training in such institutions. For this reason the brunt of the country’s brain power migrates to more developed countries, such as Australia, where they have the opportunity to improve, use cutting edge technology and get a handsome reward for their work.

This means that developing countries – such as India and South Africa – often find themselves in a paradoxical situation where they need to improve the social and financial situation in order to keep their intellectual elite, but they need that same highly skilled workforce in order to work out the problems and improve the conditions within the country. Developed countries, on the other hand, benefit greatly from the phenomenon of brain-drain as they see a steady increase of highly educated and technically proficient professionals from both the local populace and those coming in from different countries.

It has been shown over and over again that out of the total number of students who come from developing countries to study in universities in America, Canada, UK or Australia, only a small number actually return home. This is great news for developed countries – they provide optimal conditions for the local populace to receive higher education, but they also get young, intelligent people from across the globe who come and stay, as well as fully trained professionals who actually received their training abroad and come looking for a job. Thus, the scientific community becomes saturated and there is a lot more competition – which leads to only the very best being at the forefront of their respective fields. For this reason there is constant innovation and improvement, so countries such as Australia take the lead when it comes to technological development while some countries with the weaker economies that actually have a pretty good education system lag behind.

The Australian government strives to make it easy for these talented individuals to come into the country, offering a migration program that enables people to earn visas based on their skills. There is such a huge influx of skilled professionals that many professions reach full saturation and are removed from the Skilled Occupations List (SOL), which means that at this point Australia has more skilled professionals available in certain sectors than it actually needs. While this is a great for Australia, countries in dire need of skilled professionals get left out of the equation and are faced with more banal problems. Brain-drain only increases the gap between developed and developing countries, which leads to a lot of very important problems – e.g. famine and disease – being overlooked or inadequately addressed. There is no simple solution for this technological monopoly, but we have to start thinking on a more global level if we are to progress to the next step in our evolution as an advanced civilization.

Cite this article:
Petrovic A (2013-12-14 00:17:34). The Detrimental Effect of Brain-Drain on the Scientific Community. Australian Science. Retrieved: May 02, 2024, from http://australianscience.com.au/australia-2/the-detrimental-effect-of-brain-drain-on-the-scientific-community/

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Things Every Young Scientist Should Know About Industrial Science

Alex Petrovic — Thu, 12 Dec 2013 00:26:26 +0000

Pretty much every industry has some glaring problems that have yet to be addressed – change comes slowly, but it does come and we strive to improve. However, with the scientific industry some of the problems are not that obvious or easy to resolve. As you would expect from a group of highly educated and skilled intellectuals, things tend to get a bit complicated. While some people are content to be academics and focus on teaching, a number of scientists feel that there is much more opportunity to actually make a difference in the industrial sector and the fact that there is more money involved is a great motivation as well. However, a career in science involves some sacrifices.

For instance, working for a company means that a scientist doesn’t have a lot of freedom when it comes to research. You will be paid to do to a job, and like with any job the higher-ups will expect results and have you follow strict rules. Higher education also means devoting yourself full-time to studying and researching, all the way through your mid and late twenties. So those looking for a job will need to wait quite a bit before they earn their doctorates.

It’s a very competitive environment

The nature of the industry itself doesn’t always allow for a relatively seamless transition from studying to getting a job. Simply put, there is a lot of competition. Companies have a big pool of skilled scientists to choose from and there are a lot of highly educated immigrants with PhD’s coming to the country. The Australian government is providing incentive for scientists from all over the world to come to Australia, where they have a job waiting for them. This means that young scientists will be up against a huge number of very capable competitors. Employees are often needed for a part-time position or are recruited for a particular project, so even if a person gets chosen out of the mass of eager scientists they don’t necessarily have job security.

It’s often hard to keep up with technology

As previously mentioned the technology used in a number of different fields evolves very rapidly and keeping up with it requires constant training. On the most basic level, even things like data entry and writing reports requires a proficiency and digital literacy, and not everyone feels comfortable with the software. A lot of the time employers will assume that everyone already knows how to use existing software optimally or they expect you to catch up on the fly. For someone who has already spent a good part of their life studying and improving their knowledge in a very specialized area this presents an additional burden and can lead to dissatisfaction and lack of motivation. Companies that offer training can keep their employees engaged and improve productivity, but this way of getting everyone up to speed is often neglected. More often than not people will be left to their own devices.

All in all, devoting life to science is a noble cause, and there is both money to be made and an opportunity to produce some tangible results in the field of industrial science, but starting a career in this field is a difficult endeavor that requires tons of dedication and patience.

Cite this article:
Petrovic A (2013-12-12 00:26:26). Things Every Young Scientist Should Know About Industrial Science. Australian Science. Retrieved: May 02, 2024, from http://australianscience.com.au/australia-2/things-every-young-scientist-should-know-about-industrial-science/

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Saving Australia’s Dodo

Editorial Board — Thu, 26 Sep 2013 00:07:49 +0000

The legendary Dodo bird was lost to the world in the 1600’s, when it was hunted to extinction on the island of Mauritius, but few Australians would realise that a flightless island bird here has narrowly avoided the same fate – thanks to an amazing story of dedication, skill and cooperation.

The Woodhen: A Flightless Island Bird Defying Extinction is a fascinating book from CSIRO Publishing, authored by renowned ornithologist Clifford Frith.

A native of the magnificent Lord Howe Island, the iconic local Woodhen (also known as the Lord Howe Rail) was at the very brink of extinction, with just 15 individuals found in 1980. Bold and risky actions were taken to save it.

“For millennia it fearlessly walked unmolested,” Mr Frith notes. “Within a mere 138 years of human settlement, the trusting and highly edible bird was all but gone from the face of the Earth – with as few as five breeding pairs still alive.”
Pristine Lord Howe Island was discovered in 1788 and was permanently settled in the 1830s, with the arrival of humans and rats wiping out many local birds. The book documents the various species driven to extinction – a fate that almost befell the Woodhen.

The Woodhen examines the origins of Lord Howe Island and its wildlife, as well as the origins, evolution and extinction of flightless rails.

The book details our early knowledge of the Lord Howe Island Woodhen, the decimation of its population, and the bold management plan that is slowly reviving the species.

Just as humans took the Woodhen to the brink of extinction, it has been intrusive and intensive methods that have come to the rescue – in the form of a smart and dedicated team.

Mortality in the wild remains a significant issue and Frith argues that even more should be done, by setting up breeding programs on predator-free islands and at reputable institutions. For despite great gains, the Woodhen remains in danger.

The Woodhen: A Flightless Island Bird Defying Extinction Author: Clifford B. Frith

Source: CSIRO media. Illustration By John Gould (1804-1881).

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Australia’s consumption of natural resources – a report

Editorial Board — Wed, 18 Sep 2013 00:06:07 +0000

By Heinz Schandl, Senior Science Leader and Thomas Wiedmann, Associate Professor at University of New South Wales

For some time Australians have been considered among the biggest consumers of natural resources in the world. According to previous studies, we each get through 70 tonnes of materials every year. This is way higher than other developed nations. But could something be influencing these figures?

Traditional analysis of international consumption of natural resources suggests countries such as Japan and the United Kingdom are consuming less as their economies grow, suggesting growth and resource use can be decoupled. Unfortunately, a closer look shows some countries are simply off-shoring the resource consumption they use to feed their growth.

Our new study shows something is missing from traditional analysis: the upstream natural resource requirements of imports and exports. With these included, the picture of national resource consumption changes dramatically.

Fossil fuels, minerals, ores, timber and food are critical to the global economy. The methods used so far to quantify natural resource use measure the flow of materials, energy, waste and emissions within a nation or region. This delivers an estimate for domestic material consumption: the amount of material and energy flow per person for that nation or region.

By this measure, Australia is one of the largest users of natural resources in the world. Japan has a domestic material consumption of around 10 tonnes per person, and the United Kingdom is even lower, at around 8 tonnes per person.

Measured this way, it seems reasonable to claim nations such as Japan and the UK are finally managing to decouple economic growth from resource consumption – something of a holy grail achievement as we face a resource-restricted future.

But the claim is based on misleading data. The domestic material consumption approach is flawed because it fails to account for two very important factors: the resource requirements of imports and exports.

This difference between consumption-based and territorial accounting is well known for greenhouse gas emissions. We know that you can count a country’s emissions either by looking at emissions generated in the country, or emissions generated in creating things that the country consumes. In our new paper published in PNAS, we now replicate this method for total use of primary resources.

This is known as the “material footprint

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The Most Useful Science Student Books for AU Universities

Alex Petrovic — Fri, 30 Aug 2013 07:09:10 +0000

Student life can be a bit of a struggle – you are at your prime, young and energetic, and you need to balance studying, fun and work, all the while trying to make ends meet on an often limited budget. Be that as it may, Australia still has some of the best universities in the world, which offer great learning opportunities to their students. When it comes to science there are a lot of options to choose, but keeping in mind that students often have to make due on a tight budget I will look into some useful general textbooks that cover all the important basics and some cost-effective purchase options. These are all textbooks that offer great information on the core principles in their respective fields and can give students a very strong scientific foundation which they can expand upon as they progress in their studies. Within this article I am going to focus just on two science fields: Bioscience and Chemistry.

Biosciences Textbooks

Biosciences are particularly interesting scientific branches that offer deeper insights into the way we are built, how our bodies work and how our body chemistry can be manipulated to improve health and fight disease. They also offer great career opportunities. Some great bioscience textbooks include:

Pharmacology for Pharmacy and the Health Sciences – a great choice for those that want to learn about the clinical use of drugs and their effects on the human body on a cellular level. This textbook can help you built a solid knowledge base in pharmacology.
Essentials of Human Nutrition – a good overall choice for those who wish to familiarize themselves with the field of nutrition. The textbook gives a broad overview of the field.
Chemistry for the Biosciences – an overview of the core concepts of chemistry and how they affect the biological world. The textbook contains numerous analogies and real world examples which help those studying biological and biomedical science get a good understanding of this crucial information and allow them to later build upon this knowledge.

Chemistry Textbooks

Chemistry is an integral part of our daily lives and even laymen will cross paths with some of its laws during simple daily tasks. Some great textbooks every chemistry student should have by his or her side include:

Inorganic Chemistry, Sixth Edition – a comprehensive and easy to read textbook that covers all the fundamental principles as well as practical applications.
Organic Chemistry: a mechanistic approach – this textbook provides a great insight into the nature of organic compounds and their reactions and serves as an introduction into more complex subjects and deeper research.
Atkins’ Physical Chemistry, Tenth Edition – an easy to read textbook that will allow you to quickly find all the information you need on physical chemistry. It contains information on areas such as thermodynamics, quantum theory, molecular structure and chemical kinetics.

Many of these books you can find online and the best thing is that you can actually get used textbooks from older students, or you can get eBook versions which are significantly cheaper or you can even rent textbooks for a limited time, e.g. for a month when preparing an exam.

All in all, these textbooks will provide you with enough material to develop a strong understanding of the basic scientific principles that you will need to call upon many times during your studies.

Cite this article:
Petrovic A (2013-08-30 07:09:10). The Most Useful Science Student Books for AU Universities. Australian Science. Retrieved: May 02, 2024, from http://australianscience.com.au/australian-universities/the-most-useful-science-student-books-for-au-universities/

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Carbon emissions trading schemes – do they work?

Alisa Bryce — Mon, 05 Aug 2013 00:25:37 +0000

Kevin Rudd’s plan to scrap the carbon tax in the name of an emissions trading scheme has spurred debates over which carbon reduction system is better. I use the term ‘better,’ as discussions seem to be focusing on costs to Australian families rather than which system is more effective at actually reducing carbon emissions.

The new emissions trading scheme will reportedly ‘ease the pressure’ on Australian families. But the average Australian family pays only $380/year with the carbon tax, less than a standard mobile phone bill for a single person. Rudd should, therefore, be focusing on the bigger picture – the effects of carbon in the atmosphere and which system will actually reduce carbon emissions.

Pollution trading was first suggested in the United States in the 1960’s, becoming popular in the US during the 1990’s Acid Rain program, a cap and trade scheme that successfully reduced sulphur dioxide (SO₂) emissions. The success of the SO₂ program is frequently cited as ‘proof’ that carbon markets will also be effective at reducing Green House Gases (GHG), and was a key driver behind the United States push for market mechanisms to be the main mechanisms in the Kyoto Protocol.

Most emissions trading schemes are cap-and-trade. Cap-and-trade works by quantifying emissions, assigning a set number licences to pollute (emit carbon), then incentivising businesses to meet their cap the cheapest way. Businesses can pay for technology to reduce their emissions, adopt cleaner practices, or purchase licences to emit from other businesses. According to neoliberal market ideology, the market will effectively allocate permits, therefore market based mechanisms are the most efficient way to reduce emissions. For example, Businesses A and B both have 20 permits. Business B finds it cheaper to reduce emissions and only needs 10 permits. It then sells its left over 10 permits (for a profit) to business A. Business A now has 30 permits, Business B 10 permits. Emissions haven’t been reduced, they have just shifted.

In theory, the number of permits will gradually be reduced, forcing business to ‘clean up their act’. This has been shown to work, but only in examples like the SO₂ trading scheme where trading was only allowed within one country, was easy to monitor and only involved one pollutant. When trading is global, emissions are often not reduced, and can even increase.

Kyoto is a prime example. Instead of reducing emissions, the international trading schemes just shifted them around, moving emissions from wealthier nations to poorer ones. How? Businesses simply outsourced their polluting activities to poorer nations in the Global South – India, China, Africa, where environmental laws are less strict and labour cheaper. Businesses also purchased offsets – popular because it is cheaper to pay for emissions savings in the Global South than for abatement costs in the Global North. However offsets themselves have received even more criticism than carbon trading. Offsets are vague, the ‘savings’ in carbon reductions often unprovable and unquantifiable, summarised neatly by journalist Dan Welch as “an imaginary commodity created by deducting what you hope happens from what you guess would have happened.

Cite this article:
Bryce A (2013-08-05 00:25:37). Carbon emissions trading schemes - do they work?. Australian Science. Retrieved: May 02, 2024, from http://australianscience.com.au/australia-2/carbon-emissions-trading-schemes-do-they-work/

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Life of an epidemic: Australian dengue

Charles Ebikeme — Thu, 01 Aug 2013 00:06:40 +0000

It is always a bad sign when crowds gather. On the morning of Wednesday March 21 in the year 1900, a crowd began to gather in Sydney. A thousand people had gathered outside the offices of the Board of Health in Macquarie Street. They had gathered because bubonic plague had broken out. People had already started to die from the Black Death. Panic was the only course of action.

The Government had stockpiled Haffkine’s serum (named after the Russian bacteriologist that developed it in a makeshift laboratory in a corridor of Grant Medical College) — a new plague vaccine, and had used it to inoculate front

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Are Australians Really Getting Dumber?

Magdeline.L — Tue, 23 Jul 2013 00:00:27 +0000

The Australian Academy of Science has found that when it comes to science Australians are getting dumber in its latest report on science literacy. Compared to three years ago, less people in Australia know that the Earth’s orbit of the sun takes one year. Among 18-24 year olds 62% surveyed knew the correct answer, a fall from 74% three years ago. Other results would also send scientists into a tail spin of despair, with 27% of respondents saying that the earliest humans lived at the same time as dinosaurs, though an improvement from 30% of respondents in 2010 who thought this.

What does this all say? If you take the face value of the press release and the ensuing media coverage, Australians are getting dumber. I’m a scientist who dedicates a significant proportion of time to science outreach activities and announcements like this get sent my way. They get sent my way not because I moonlight as a science journalist but because people genuinely want to know what I think and feel about such a survey. I suspect what they really want to know is whether I feel I have wasted my time.

Here is my honest answer: There ought to be no panicking and nor should there be any despair of the results. This survey does not reflect science literacy in Australia.

This survey is asks these six questions of people:

How long does it take for the Earth to go around the Sun?
Is the following statement true or false? The earliest humans lived at the same time as dinosaurs.
What percentage of the Earth’s surface is covered by water?
What percentage of the Earth’s water is fresh water?
Do you think that evolution is occurring?
Do you think that humans are influencing the evolution of other species?

The results of the answers of these six questions is what science literacy in Australia is measured against by the Australian Academy of Science. These questions are an exercise in recall. Some facts are bigger than others and are covered with more significance in the Australian Science Curriculum that is currently being rolled out across the nation. A curriculum I would like to point out that is formed from the basis of previous curricula from the states and territories of Australia. It is freely available to anyone who would like to see what some are demanding more science content in but not stating specifics as to what. More focus is not a sufficient demand.

As a scientist sitting here typing this article, I could not tell you what percentage of the Earth’s water is fresh water. I certainly hope no one expects me to know this fact. I have memories of teachers stating the number but I can’t recall it. Instead what I do remember from those lessons is that fresh water is rare and that it is precious and that it should not be wasted. Which is the more important science lesson?

I will go further and make a confession as a chemist. I cannot recall the first 20 elements of the Periodic Table. I know that hydrogen and helium are the first two elements and that’s where my recall is. However, place me in a chemistry lab, I can perform all manner of inorganic and wet chemical analysis. I know chemistry so well that I can tutor the subject so well that a C-grade student can become an A-grade student who no longer needs tutoring. I am not just imparting chemical knowledge but also the skills of lifelong learning and an appreciation for the reasons behind chemical relationships.

Science is so much more than recalling factoids. The only use factoid recall will ever have is winning a quiz. It won’t even guarantee you an A in an examination. The vast majority of reporting of results of this quiz has widened the divide between the scientific community and everyone else. Going on the attack labelling Australians for not only being illiterate in science but also assuming that they did nothing to improve the results three years since the last survey is not being inclusive in the lead up to National Science Week. It is frustrating to witness this communication gaffe.

I doubt many scientists or even Nobel Science Laureates could score 100% in the survey questions without any assistance. Does this diminish their ability as a scientist? Would you dare to question their interest and curiosity of science? I don’t think anyone would.

What is science? I have heard it described as a common sense approach to finding out why things work. It is also about discovering new understandings of accepted scientific understanding. It is about communicating with other people interested in the same part of the world that you are. It is about being able to gather information and use evidence to form a hypothesis for testing. It is also about telling the world about why you see the way something is based on the evidence in front of you. It is also an ability to accept new ideas when the evidence presents itself. It is also a skill to recognise when something is not what you thought it was.

Science is so many things. The practicing of observing events objectively and requiring evidence to form a conclusion is something that takes place in every science classroom in Australia. This underpins so many areas in life that require analysis. In this election year, I hope that eligible voters in Australia remember the skills of observation and reasoning from science lessons rather than factoids. It is the former that will allow them to discuss policies and make decisions.

It is time that the Australian public is given credit where credit is due. I spend time reading the comments left on news articles dealing with contentious issues like vaccination and climate change. Despite the overwhelming scientific evidence, there are people that will argue against conventional knowledge under the guises of skepticism or conscientious objection. Time and time again there are Australians who are non-scientists engaging with the discussion to explain what the scientific evidence means.

Additionally there are numerous citizen science projects dotted around the nation with armies of volunteers who don’t hold a science degree collecting and processing data for scientists to analyse. Take the time to talk to these volunteers and you will find that they are an incredible asset to Australia. They know the finer details of their local environment and add so much value to the numbers being collected.

The survey by the Australian Academy of Science does not highlight these sorts of activity and does a disservice announcing Australians to be dumber. When it comes to science literacy discussion in Australia I would like to see something more than press releases on six question survey that tests memory recall. My description of science makes it hard to measure and define because science is a combination of particular skills and understanding and the application of them. It is time that due respect be given to this and change measurement methods to reflect this if we want meaningful data about Australian science literacy.

Image source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/scjn/

Cite this article:
Lum M (2013-07-23 00:00:27). Are Australians Really Getting Dumber?. Australian Science. Retrieved: May 02, 2024, from http://australianscience.com.au/australia-2/are-australians-really-getting-dumber/

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Australia’s evolving drug landscape

Charles Ebikeme — Tue, 09 Jul 2013 00:01:13 +0000

This year we saw Australia put into force a new patent law. An intellectual property system that was Australia’s most comprehensive in over two decades. It came into effect on 15 April 2013 and no one knew exactly what to expect from it.

We have seen with cases like India, how one country’s patent laws can send ripples and disrupt the entire system. And, in the case of Thailand, how a country can take matters into its own hands to enact a public good.

It really all centres around compulsory licensing. A compulsory license, in simple legalese, is the use of a patented innovation that has been licensed by a state without the permission of the patent title holder. This started over a decade ago, when the World Trade Organization adopted the “Declaration on the TRIPS Agreement and Public Health

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Australia extends its expertise in water resource management to Asia

Editorial Board — Tue, 02 Jul 2013 00:02:02 +0000

Scientists from Australia’s national science agency, CSIRO, are applying their knowledge in transboundary river basin management to improve the livelihoods of people living in some of the poorest parts of Asia.

CSIRO and its partners have begun work in the Koshi River Basin which stretches from China, across the Himalayas through Nepal and discharges into the Ganges River in India.

The Koshi Basin is home to millions of people who rely on its fertile floodplains for their livelihoods. There is growing pressure to address development challenges in the Basin, in particular population growth and an increasing demand for energy, whilst working within constraints of natural hazards exacerbated by a changing climate, such as floods, drought, landslides, sediment movement and debris flow.

In a collaborative four-year project, scientists from CSIRO’s Water for a Healthy Country Flagship will provide technical assistance to the International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development’s (ICIMOD) Koshi Basin Programme. CSIRO scientists will develop an integrated basin-wide modelling system to improve management of the Koshi River Basin. This system will incorporate information on water availability, freshwater environments and the ecosystem services they provide and social considerations such as the effect of changes in water availability on livelihoods. The system will contribute to development in the Koshi Basin in a socially and environmentally sustainable manner and support national and transboundary water reforms.

“Australia has a long history of managing a scarce and variable water resource, and sharing this resource amongst competing users,” said CSIRO’s Water for a Healthy Country Flagship Director, Dr Carol Couch. “There is much the Australian water experience will bring to this project to help improve sustainable development and climate resilience, reduce water stress, and inform water-related decision making and transboundary issues. We will draw on the suite of large river basin assessments undertaken across Australia in recent years, such as the Murray-Darling Basin Sustainable Yields assessment.

“Research will be undertaken as a partnership between Australian organisations and ICIMOD researchers, based in Nepal. We will also be learning from ICIMOD, particularly in relation to sediment movement, snow melt and glacial processes,” said Dr Couch.

“At ICIMOD, we have taken a long-term, transboundary approach to support river basin management. This includes testing, piloting, and monitoring the innovations needed to address common issues related to climate change, cryosphere, water resources management and livelihood promotion,” said Dr David Molden, Director General of ICIMOD.

“The Koshi Basin Programme will provide a platform for national and international researchers and decision makers to come together to promote transboundary cooperation and integrated water resource management practices and policies. This will also include the development of measures for risk management as well as equitable access to water for energy and food security,” said Dr Molden.

Work undertaken by CSIRO this year will consist of a review and analysis of the existing knowledge base, capacity building and the development of a prototype model for the Koshi River Basin that incorporates information on water, climate, hydropower, freshwater environments, irrigation and social issues including poverty alleviation. The knowledge gained from this project will culminate in the development of a robust integrated basin-wide modelling framework, using eWater’s hydrological modelling platform, Source.

Source.

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